Blabberings of a Video Game Geek

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No matter how much I intend to update this journal, I always seem to allow laspes … of the large kind. So let’s see if I can’t get everyone caught up with my going-ons …

Seems Blizzard will be releasing WotLK November 13th despite indications from the beta that it won’t be completely ready. But what ever is? When I worked at Namco games would routinely ship with bugs in them; sometimes even game-crashing bugs. Then when you think about the constantly evolving nature of a MMO, it only makes sense that they’d push it out sooner than polish it to a spit-shine.

Unfortunately 11/13 falls smack dab in the middle of this school term which will limit my game time. If I were not taking vacation time (Nov. 13,14,17-21) I’d barely be able to spend time in Northrend. Taking some time off from work will allow me to split my focus between school and WotLK while maintaining a happy household.

Being a month out from the expansion has led to changes in plans, mainly that I’ll be getting my rogue to 80 pretty much before anything else. With the changes that have come to the combat tree, I may just return to a combat build for leveling, (and maybe even for PVP given the mobility nerf to lolstep). I’ll toy with a mutilate build once 3.0.2 hits next week, but I’ll have to toss mongoose on the daggers I have: [Direbrew’s Shanker] & [Retainer’s Blade].

Part of the reason for the decision to focus solely on my rogue come expansion time is to get in on the ground floor of level 80 arena. My current 3v3 partners and I will be reforming a 3v3 team for season 5 and we’re determined to not allow gear dictate our ratings as much.

Last week we went a disappointing 4-6 dropping us to the low 1400s which killed our morale and drive. Yet we gathered again and went 7-3 this week pushing our ratings back to scratching at that ellusive 1500+ rating … le sigh. At this point in the game we keep running into teams with s3 weapons and/or s4 gear, even in the sub-1500 bracket.

Granted there isn’t a /huge/ difference between our s2/3 gear and s3/4 gear we’ve been facing, but folks that have acquired said s3/4 gear are far more experienced in the arena scene and have strategic advantages. Fortunately the arena scene will be almost completely different in the 80s and we’ll be learning along with the rest of the scene. So we’re confident that we’ll fare much much better in WotLK.

As for other WotLK plans, my mage on Whisperwind is easily going to be level 55 by the launch (she’s currently @ lv52)and I’ll probably put more focus on my DK on Whisperwind than I will on Cenarius (my main server). I don’t really need another alt on Cenarius to neglect, but having a DK on Whisperwind will give me more reason to spend time over there. Besides, I’m sure the alliance in the Rampage battlegroup could use a good/decent PVPer.

While my DK on Whisperwind will likely become my main, I’m determined to get my mage to 80 to PVP with her. Well, her and my DK of course. Seems that I live for PVP in WoW despite how inherently flawed it is. *smirk*

And now for some random screenshots …

Water elementals + Frost Spec = Paaaaaiiiiin

Brewfest Concert Event in BRD

Thunder Bluff is so beautiful

And now for some random thoughts …

I feel completely lost watching season 3 of Heroes (haven’t seen seasons 1 & 2)

I really like the new Filter album that was ninja released back in March (just discovered it last week)

My front yard is a complete loss; completely infested with crab grass

My sister picked out a stuffed Cactaur for her birthday present

I really need an iPhone 3G so I can listen to the Woody Show while not in Live 105’s broadcast area

When will the Niners get a good QB again? J.T O’Sullivan is NOT the future of the Niners

It’s October already?!

I’m sick of politicians and wish someone decent would actually run for office (hate both Obama and McCain)

Another expansion is on the horizon and yet again Blizz has made me excited, disappointed, angry at the same time. Sure it’ll be quite some time before it is released, but just knowing that progression now will mean less with another 10 levels to grind makes it far less exciting to grind out rep so I can gear up in heroics. I personally think Blizz should re-evaluate the 80 cap and bring it down to 75 and then give us alternative advancement through hero class specializations.

Don’t get me wrong, the death knight sounds cool, but it just seems weird that it’ll be similar to unlocking jedis in SWG. There’s a ton of questions that hopefully Blizz will address over the next couple months; Will a DK trivialize tanks? Will he be capable of solo’ng a lv70+ 5 man? The play mechanics sound refreshing, but again … what will it do to the existing game?

Overall I can sum up my take on the new expansion with this question: “Where the hell is Diablo 3?” Then again, if they did make D3, I’d hope they wouldn’t take a page from the current WoW dev team. I don’t want a rep-grind diablo, I want something heavy on action, heavy on fun, but most importantly … Diablo.

Now onto random thoughts regarding the new expansion …

Dalaran is floating over Northrend?
Where the hell is capentry as a profession?
Will Azeroth be reworked to allow for flying mounts … eventually?
Will 1-58 be reworked to be more rewarding/quicker?
Will Frostmourne be required to unlock a death knight?

I’ll preface this entry by giving a fair bit of warning on my mental state; I am exhausted. If I end up rambling, please excuse me and I’ll hope for the best. Anyways, I think I’ll geek-out and try to update my WoW hijinks.

With 1.11 around the corner I finally provided my rogue (he’s the leatherworker) with a salt shaker so that I may partake in the fleecing of those needing cured rugged hides for their tier 3 sets. My best friend was able to sell a stack for 149g so it should be pretty profitable before EVERYONE starts pumping out the hides. I mean, there’s only going to be a small population that will actually be ready to get tier 3, so the bottom of the market could fall out very quickly.

But either way this preperation has caused me to pick up skinning again on my rogue as my druid won’t be 60 anytime soon. Once my rogue was a 300 skinner, but when I decided to start farming BRD for DI ore I dropped skinning in favor of mining. Now that months have gone by without my running BRD and having horrible luck with obtaining arcane crystals, I’ve decided to go back to skinning, at least temporarily.

Potentially the only game to shake my WoW addiction?

My longterm plan is to drop skinning (again) for jewelcrafting once the expansion hits later this year. Although this is all hinging on whether or not Phantasy Star Universe completely usurps WoW as my gaming addiction. I’m hoping I’ll be able to give both their due time, but let’s be real. PSO decimated the time I spent with other games and considering how much Sega improved on that formula … well let’s just say that it will enter my hall-of-fame (or infamy to the wife ^^) of gaming addictions.

But let’s get back to WoW for now. As I previously stated I’m in the process of leveling up a druid for skinning and mining. At first playing a druid felt like weaker shaman, but once I hit 20 and was able to shift into catform I have completely fallen in love with the class. Druid is a schmorgesborgh (sp?) of class-types: rogue, warrior, priest, magician. They’re a blast to play and I am looking forward to being able to solo mobs that my rogue could never hope to.

My brother-in-law doing his thing … Slow shutter speeds kickass

Okay, I think I’ve geeked out enough for this entry. Now onto something else that I’m really looking forward to. My brother-in-law is the drummer for a band called Soul Census and they’re playing at a local lounge/bar. I absolutely love these guys and am hoping that sometime in the near future they get some more studio time and lay down some more tracks. If you’ve heard Incubus’ older stuff and like it I think you’ll dig them.

Well look at that, it seems so far I’ve been able to remain coherent, but I can feel the exhaustion creeping back. So before my entry does dribble into a mess I’ll wrap it up with a couple random thoughts …